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Battle of Brighton
Background For two years straight, the invasion of Europe had been a complete success for the Soviet Union. Since the invasion of Poland, the Soviets had reached the French-German border in only a year and France had recently fallen to the might of the Red Army, which was currently finalizing the conquest of the Iberian peninsula. As the Soviets secured their foothold on mainland Europe, Britain was the next natural target, as the only Allied stronghold remaining east of Iceland. Its fall would evict the Allies from Europe, only leaving the Atlantic between the Union and America. Since the Soviet army relied on momentum, shocking the Allied defence before they could mobilise efficiently, the Soviet Command decided to strike Great Britain as quickly as possible, immediately building up a fleet in Normandy for conquering the islands that hadn't fallen since 1066 and William the Conqueror. Indeed, failing to stay on the move would allow the Allies to build up defences, making the conquest of the British Isles an impossibility even for the most daring Soviet commanders. While the Soviet Air Force bombed London to rubble, the commanders worked to find the ideal landing spot for an invasion. It had to be on the southern coast; that was the only place the Navy could reach without being intercepted by the Allied dito, still reigning supreme in the North Sea and after two years still holding the fort in the Netherlands. Crossing the English Channel was quickly ruled out; Dover was too heavily guarded, and the cliffs would be difficult to conquer. Allied bases in Cornwall likewise made an invasion of the region impossible. The remaining spot was Sussex, in southeastern England, namely the coastal city of Brighton. Being a tourist attraction, the Allied defence was relatively weak there, and the beachfront was easy to take. General Krukov himself was to lead the attack, planned to take place in January 1967. Force Composition Allied Forces Initially regarding a Soviet attack on Brighton improbable, the Allies had concentrated their defences at other locations; sealing Brighton's fate as a target in the process. As the Soviet navy steamed towards Sussex, the Allies realized their grave mistake in doing so and hurried as many troops from nearby locations tht could be spared to assist in defending Brighton, which was only guarded by the 421st Infantry Brigade; half of it in Brighton and half in its twin city Hove. The 422nd and 424th Infantry Brigades were sent in from Shoreham-by-Sea and Peacehaven respectively, although a Soviet diversion attack on Peacehaven slowed down the latter considerably. The 421st and 422nd divisions were under the command of the relatively unknown commander Major Alex Manning, who was in charge of all the Allied forces in West Sussex, while the 424th was commanded by the more experienced Air Marshal Giles Price II., like the rest of the forces in eastern England. While most of the air force was busy defending Britain, especially London, from Soviet bombers, the Allied ditos were still on the ground. While they were in more dire need of anti-air to take down the Soviet paratroopers, the nearest group of Century Bombers were being readied at the Truleigh Hill Airbase, and were placed under Air Marshal Price's command if needed. The Allies had also constructed several Grand-model cannons at the beachhead during the Second World War. However, the maintenance funding for the cannons had been cut several years back, and as a result the cannons were out of operation. The Allied troops present began to fix them up to shape, as they would need anything that they could spare. If working, they would be devastating to the approaching navy. Soviet Forces For an initial attack, the Soviet forces sent to attack Brighton were quite meagre, fortunately for the Allies; while the attacking force still outnumbered the defenders, they weren't overwhelming, unlike previous Soviet attacks. The most probable reason for this, despite the Soviets denying it even to themselves, was that the Red Army had reached its limits. Overstretching was not too far away already in France, and by 1967 the Soviets had advanced beyond their capabilities; especially with the Empire of the Rising Sun knocking on the Soviet backdoor. Thus the force was meeker than expected by far. Indeed, the Soviets could only spare slightly more than 2000 men; an embarrassingly small number for a final assault on anything, much less the Allied stronghold of Great Britain. This was partly redeemed by the invasion fleet, including a whopping four ''Dreadnought''-class missile cruisers, supported by a large fleet of Bullfrogs and Stingrays. What the Soviet leadership, under General Nikolai Krukov, expected to be the straws that would break the cart were the 5 Kirov Airships which would bring devastation to Britain after the ground forces had cleared the surface of anti-air weaponry. Attack on the Beach On January 14th, 1967, alarms sounded in Brighton to empty streets; in a massive humanitarian operation, the population of every city in southern England had been evacuated to enormous bunker complexes in Scotland. Soviet Badger Bombers could be seen from the pier, if someone were to stand there, by 7 AM, and moments later several Soviet soldiers and bears dropped down on the city, securing most of the beachfront immediately. What followed was a futile attempt by the 421st Infantry Brigade, outnumbered 2 to 1, to hold the city against the Soviet onslaught. While they were trained far better than their Soviet enemies, the Peacekeepers were suppressed by the Conscripts and Flak Troopers and killed by the War Bears. The poor Attack Dogs were mostly held down by enemy fire. By 10 AM the Allies were down to 201 soldiers and 43 dogs, versus 724 soldiers and 107 bears. With the city looking lost the Soviet invasion fleet steamed onwards, and in France a Soviet MCV prepared to head off for Brighton, escorted by submarines. The remaining Allied forces pulled back to North Laine, and from there they decided to split into 5-man fireteams, which were scattered around the tight confines of the Lanes. The Brighton Shotgun Massacre Setting up a forward command post in the opulent Brighton Pavilion, Commander Krukov ordered a third of his advance force to press up North Street, enter the labyrinth that was the Lanes and flush out the Allied troops. Another third would guard the command post, and the last third would spread out through Old Steine and North Laine, setting up perimeters around the Komedia theatre and the University of Brighton. Although the soldiers of the 85th were reluctant at first to enter the death trap that was the Lanes, when threatened with the Gulag the conscripts suddenly found the courage to enter the maze. However, that proved to be to their detriment. The Peacekeepers excelled in the tight confines and snaking side alleys of the Lanes, and it didn't help that there was an armoury filled with weapons from WWII, which were quickly requisitioned by the Peacekeepers. The soldiers ordered to flush them out suffered medium-heavy casualties, as the Peacekeepers hid behind corners with shields, shotguns and old rifles, bringing the riot control side of their training into effect. Eventually, Krukov ordered them to retreat. As the conscripts rushed out of the Lanes, throwing Molotovs at the charging Peacekeepers, Krukov ordered a squadron of Badger Bombers to begin bombing of the historic streets, blowing up many buildings there. Many Peacekeepers were caught up in the explosions and were killed or seriously wounded. Those that survived regrouped and fled through Duke Lane, arriving at the nearby shopping complex Churchill Square to ready for a showdown with the advancing Soviet forces. Turning the Tables Suddenly, Krukov's Dreadnoughts appeared on the horizon. Without hesitation, every single Dreadnought fired a Molot V4 rocket at the site of Victorian engineering that was the West Pier, which housed many historical artefacts. The first two rockets blew out the iron girders holding up the entrance to the Pier, sending the first dome of glass and iron crashing into the sea with a scream of snapping metal. The next one turned the remains of the now wrecked first dome into scrap metal. The last two rockets hit the top of the main dome, setting it alight and burning it down to a charred skeletal wreck. They then turned their attention to the port of Shoreham-By-Sea, bombarding the power station and loading cranes. But amidst the rain of V4 rockets, the 422nd Infantry Brigade arrived from nearby Shoreham-By-Sea to assist their bogged down comrades. Taking the Soviet lines in Portslade, the secondary objective, by surprise they managed to take back the western parts of the city. Over a hundred Soviets were downed by the 422nd Brigade, forcing the remaining ones to take hold in eastern Hove and to spread out, easing the pressure on the Peacekeepers in Brighton itself. By 1 PM, Portslade, Aldrington and Hove had been more or less retaken, and the Peacekeepers entered Brighton to relieve their comrades in arms; searching the streets for combat and helping the defending Peacekeepers, often encroached behind hastily put up sandbags. The Engineers included in the 422nd Division had meanwhile repaired the coastal guns of Hove, which began firing on the Dreadnoughts; one shell hit the CCCP Perm's missile launcher, crippling its ability to fire. After one hour and a half, Brighton had been liberated by the now reinforced Allies; by the end joined by the 424th Division, whose IFVs helped clear the city of the Soviets. The Soviets panicked at the fact that their invasion had been stopped, and readied their amphibious forces to attack the beach. Meanwhile, Manning and Giles established bases in Brighton, and engineers began repairing the coastal cannons in Brighton as well. They also raided the local hospital for medical supplies to treated wounded soldiers, improving the Allied fighting capacity considerably. Cetacean Power Furious that the invasion force had been repulsed, General Krukov ordered the navy to steam towards Brighton immediately. His decision was however stopped by animal force; a Dolphin pod based in Dover had reached the waters of Brighton and began to harass the Soviet fleet. Many Stingrays were sunk, and other used their Tesla discharges with great success; however, in doing so, they disabled several friendly ships. No dolphin survived the attack, but they succeeded in crippling the Soviet navy, sinking over 50 ships, including the CCCP Kiev, severely limiting the attack capacity of the fleet. The Soviets would also have to wait for the ships disabled by Tesla Discharges to get back online, allowing the Allied soldiers to garrison the beachfront to counter the coming attacks and the cannons to destroy more ships. When the navy was ready to attack Brighton, it was down to half of its original capacity. It wasn't helped by the fact that the Allied Century Bombers had arrived, and proceeded to attack the ships. One of the three remaining Dreadnoughts was sunk; while the other two were crippled, with all their launchers taken out of commission. Therefore, what was supposed to be an overwhelming amphibious attack became only quite a few soldiers parachuted away from Bullfrogs, reinforced by only a couple of Stingrays. While inflicting some damage on the Allied forces, the garrisoned forces and Multigunner IFVs could dispatch the enemy forces with relative ease, apparently securing a victory. Blight of the Blimps But all wasn't clear yet. On the horizon, the imposing shadows of five Kirov Airships appeared, striking fear in the forces; they packed the power to demolish the whole city and the rest of England from Kent to Cornwall alone, not to mention the soldiers themselves. Multigunner IFVs and Javelin teams quickly spread out across the city, readying themselves for the incoming onslaught. At the same time, the Peacekeepers lacking anti-air weaponry searched through every corner of the city for weapons to use against the airships. Some remaining Engineers attempted to jury-rig some of the cannons to fire upwards, unexpectedly with some success. Left-over primitive rocket launchers from the last World War found in a home guard storage was passed around the Peacekeepers, and the bases' MCVs were busy producing Multigunner Turrets to defend the beachfront. This was the moment that would decide which side would succeed; as well as the fate of the free world. As the Kirovs neared the beachfront, the Allies fired. Missile after missile lit the sky of Brighton, more than any New Years' celebration had done before. Some hit the airships, some didn't; but for every second, the Kirovs visibly became more and more damaged. The first airship was downed a few metres from the beach, provoking even more intense fire from the soldiers. Another one exploded above the waterline, and the soldiers continued firing while moving backwards, barely outrunning the airships. As the third airship's envelope burst into flames, the remaining two received orders to retreat; they were more and more outnumbered by the Allies and even more enemy forces were en route. As they turned around and crossed the English Channel the other way, wild cheers erupted among the forces. The Battle of Brighton had been won. Aftermath With the defeat of the Soviet Union at Brighton, the momentum needed for the unstoppable advances was halted. The forces in the English Channel were crippled, and morale throughout the Soviet officer ranks sank as a stone. The opposite happened for the Allies, as the victory gave them their will to fight anew, after two years of countless defeats. Indeed, the battle marked the end of the Soviet attacks, as it was now time for the Allies to reclaim their lands. The anti-air measures employed in Brighton were taken up in the rest of the country, and Soviet bombings decreased considerably. The Allied leadership praised both Air Marshal Price and Manning, who was quickly promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Price was transferred to Turkey, where he would command Allied raids on the Caucasus and the Balkans, while Manning was assigned to a task force which would be used in liberating the south of France. The three brigades gained legendary status throughout the Allied Nations for their participation in the first major Allied victory since the start of the war. With Britain safe from Soviet invasion Allied troops could regroup in Britain, reinforced by soldiers from Canada and the United States. As the Soviets did their best to concentrate their thinly spread forces along the coast, the Allies prepared for the inevitable next step in the reclaiming of Europe; taking back continental Europe, beginning with the Normandy Landings. Category:Battles